Gaia's Gift
by weyland-yutani
Summary: The original Gaia’s Gift gets a facelift! V2.0 underway, several revisions make the story flow better. Come take a looksee!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** FF:TSW and the related characters don't belong to me, if Square wants to sue, let 'em…I'm broke!

**Author's note: **Welcome to"Gaia's Gift V2.0." I changed some things around here and there, and deleted other stuff altogether. You veterans who have read the first rendition–written so long ago, it seems–will find that it now flows better for the overhaul. Newcomers, this is sort of a backstory to Convergent Paths, soenjoy!

Phantom Crater

The hawk gave a shrill cry as she circled in the cool early morning breeze. A flick of her tail feathers and she banked, giving wide berth to the ship hovering precariously close to the edge of a gaping fissure. Had the bird of prey swooped closer, she would have seen the small platform being winched slowly upwards. Nearer still and two figures would be seen as it emerged from the dark shadows of the crater below.

Aki felt the newly risen sun on her face, but she barely registered its warmth. Instead, her thoughts traveled back over recent events…the joyous discovery of the final eighth spirit; the lethal beam from the Zeus Cannon lancing down again and yet again as General Hein single-mindedly pursued his own mindless solution; the Quatro's crash-landing and the eternal blue light of Gaia itself. But now her brown eyes overflowed with tears as she held the silent, motionless figure in her arms. Gray had sacrificed himself so that humanity would survive. Now his body, an empty shell, was all that remained. Aki's shoulders shook with her sobs and she held him tighter, as if she could somehow wish him back.

The platform's upward travel slowed, stopping with a slight jerk before retracting into the loading bay of the _Black Boa_. The main hatch swung closed and Dr. Sid maneuvered the ship to a landing on firm ground again. Once down he left the cockpit and quickly headed aft. He entered the cargo bay, took one look at Aki's expression and knelt beside her, and his own eyes shared her sorrow.

"Gray…he knew what had to be done." Aki gently laid his head on the platform and stood, ignoring the pins-and-needles sensations in her legs.Only the greatest of effort prevented her from breaking down completely. "Let's get him to the sleep chamber." She grasped Gray's ankles as Dr. Sid slid his hands beneath his arms; together they carried the courageous captain into the small roomattached to the main lab andplaced him in the angled seat. Aki gazed upon him for a long moment before pulling the retractable straps across his torso. This done, turned to Sid and it was then that her self-control finally broke and her grief surfaced. She pressed her face against his chest, barely hearing the comforting words of her mentor, who embraced her and wisely said nothing, allowing his protégé to express her sorrow. After another more moment, she pulled away and hastily wiped at her tear-streaked face. "There's nothing left for us here now," she said dully. "Let's go."

Engines ramping up from standby, the _Black Boa_ prepared for departure. In the pilot's seat once again, Aki powered up various systems and ran through her pre-flight checklist. Her movements were automatic, almost mechanical; her mind was filled with nothing but thoughts of Gray, and what he meant to her, now that he was gone. Physically and emotionally exhausted, she stared out of the portside window. Below, the Phantom crater was a huge empty eye socket, its malevolence gone now that the alien spirits it had once cradled had departed. Down in that impact site, somewhere, there remained the wreckage of the Quatro that Aki and Gray had utilized, and unless a salvage team was dispatched here it would remain undisturbed.

Dr. Sid contacted Houston, listening,and his mouth set in a grim line when he heard that the Zeus cannon was now nothing but a cloud of debris in low earth orbit. He didn't mind the fate of the station but the needless deaths of so many crewmen, all under the command of a brilliant yet mad general…he sighed, shook his head and acknowledged, relaying the news to Aki but she only inclined her head in a barely perceptible nod. If only Hein hadn't fired that orbiting abomination Gray would still be alive and with her now. She tried to contain the anguish within her, but it was hard, so damn hard to do.

"Are you ready?" Dr. Sid gently touched her arm and Aki turned her eyes to see him looking at her with concern.

She took a deep breath. "Yes. The autopilot is set to Houston Barrier City coordinates." She grasped the joystick, her other hand stroking the control keys, and increased power to the engines as she coaxed her ship upwards. The landing gear retracted as the vertical boosters went through their priming cycle and then fired. The ship turned westward, herpassengerspressed down into their seats as acceleration built, and then both the crater and the Caspian Mountains were rapidly falling away and slipping astern; the few morning clouds that remained had started to thin out as the day warmed.

Dr. Sid opened a common broadcast channel, and the cockpit was immediately filled with the babble of newscasts, which were spreading about what had occurred at New York. He listened for another minute and then rolled his eyes, grunting as he shut off the radio. He glanced at Aki again. The young woman sat slouched in her seat, her face expressionless. Sid frowned–he hated to see her like this, and he searched for something appropriate to say.

"Aki…Captain Edwards would not have wanted you to grieve so. He and his squad died protecting us. Had Hein succeeded with his plan, the entire planet would have suffered. As is stands, we have saved human civilization."

She sighed. "Yes, I know. But it's just that I…I pushed Gray away in the time following my operation, and I shouldn't have done that. He still loved me despite my condition. It's only now that I understand how much I'll miss him." Aki lapsed into silence; the only sounds heard were those of the soft chattering of the cockpit's flight systems. She was so uncharacteristically out of it that she almost failed to hear a series of faint beeps from the console before her. After another moment she did notice and irritably reached out to shut it off. But she froze in mid-motion, cocking her head. When she spoke, her voice held a note of bafflement.

"Doctor…did you shut down the scanners after we detected the eighth spirit?"

"No, I didn't have time. Why?" He noticed her manner and he tilted his own head towards the readout. Then his eyes slid sideways and met hers. "Hold on here…"

An idea began to form in Aki's mind. Her fingertips danced on the controls and she pushed the stick over. The vista outside slipped to starboard as the ship banked around and headed back towards the impact site. "Autopilot off-line. I'm taking her down. There's something else in that crater!"

Sid grasped the arms of his seat as the floor tilted away beneath him. "Now, wait, hold on. Are you certain that we're not just picking up the Quatro? Maybe a couple of the ovo-packs are still functional."

"No. It's something else…take a closer look at that display. The pattern…it's different from the other signatures we've recorded. Whatever the scanner has acquired possesses a faint trace of a human spiritual waveform! If this warrants an investigation, I believe that this is all the reason we need." Then her voice lowered to a near-whisper. "Whatever it is, it's not Phantom energy…"

Once again the _Black Boa_ touched down,not more than a few meters from its original landing spot. Aki unfastened her safety harness and was out of her seat almost before the engines had spooled down. She hurried aft to the main bay, Dr. Sid following as quickly as he was able, and when he caught up with her, she was standing before a storage locker and had just finished strapping on her wrist computer. She reached into the open locker again and slipped on a shoulder pack, then checked the charge on her rifle, the same weapon she carried into the ruins of Old New York. She doubted there was no real threat, but nevertheless she had no intention of departing the Boa unarmed.

"Dr. Sid, I've got the head back down there," she said, securing her headset but not looking at him. "That energy signature may be more than just a mere power cell. I don't know how to explain my hunch…but I intend to find out!" She palmed the hatch switch and sunlight flooded the bay as the huge door hissed open. Sid watched the headstrong young woman and sighed. "All right. But I'm going to monitor you.I want you to remain in constant radio contact, is that clear?"

She nodded and boarded the boarding platform. As she did, she thought of Gray again and hope stirred faintly within her. She grasped the platform railing, hair stirring as the breeze outside picked up slightly, and looked back over her shoulder. Dr. Sid raised a hand.

"Be careful, Aki."

A faint smile crossed her face. "I will."

Minutes later the ship was once again hovering over the crater. The platform arm swung out,winch motors hummed, and Aki began her descent. Large slabs of dark rock began to rise on all sides. Memories rose unbidden, as, for the second time, she entered the lair of the Phantoms. But there are no aliens here now, she thought. No more Phantoms, just the Earth's Gaia, restored,thanks to our efforts...and Gray's. She switched on her com unit and spoke–she had to raise her voice over the howling engines of the hovering _Black Boa_. "Dr. Sid, do you read?"

A slight hiss of static, then: "Yes, loud and clear! Have you located the power signature?"

Aki wore a safety tether that fastened her to a mooring point on the platform, but the palm of the hand that tightly grasped her rifle was damp with anxiety. "According to my tracker it lies to the southeast, about fifty-two meters from my projected touchdown point. Can you verify?"

Up in the cockpit, Dr. Sid brought up a holographic display. The icon designating Aki's position was slowly dropping towards a large flat outcropping, a wide rocky ledge that formed part of a semicircle around a chasm of unknown depth. A larger symbol represented the Quatro, which was indeed not too far off the heading she had just radioed. "Confirmed. But some of those larger rock formations are showing signs of instability thatprobably occurred when the alien Gaia departed."

"I read you. Nearing the bottom…okay, I'm down." A momentary pause, and then suddenly there came a cry of surprise.

"Aki! What is it? Come in! "

There was a delay before she answered. "It's okay, I just slipped. I'm closing in on the power source now." Unsnapping her cable, she began to walk. A faint mountain wind howled its hollow idiot note in several narrow crannies, making a chill ran down her back. Shecontinued on, her boots crunching on small pieces of rock. She glanced up. Her ship floated far above, engines whining faintly, in a wide circle of azure blue that was crossed with mid-level clouds, but the immediate surroundings were ominous. She activated her headpiece light and eye scanner and the shadows near her evaporated; stony cliff-like structures loomed all around. She only now grasped the sheer power the massive alien Gaia had expended when it had headed deeper in its attempt to escape Hein's vicious attack. After a few more minutes of picking her way along the uneven cavern floor, Aki made another transmission. "The signature is dead ahead, just past a rock fall." She managed to find footholds in the small heap of broken stone, and she scrambled over. What lay before her brought her up short. "Oh, my God…"

Her earpiece clicked. "What do you see, Aki?"

For a brief moment, she did not reply as she took in the scene. She slowly descended the pile of rubble and approached the remains of the Quatro. Its drive units were crushed; two of its wheels lay askew and the globular passenger cabin was ruined. A small fire smoldered fitfully, casting a wan glow; smoke rose from the engine's ventilation grille. The forward fringes of her spotlight picked out faint marks on the ground. She turned the full force of the illumination on them, and shivered as she recognized them. They were the tracks made by the heels of Gray's boots; she had hauled him away as well as she was able, her grief lending her strength to drag his body back to the platform. With a real effort, she composed herself and spoke, her voice echoing around her.

"The Quatro is pretty much destroyed, doctor." she said as she neared the wreckage. She glanced at her wrist computer. "But the energy source is stronger–I'm getting readings from within the vehicle!"

She mounted the short stairway and ducked her head inside, coughing as she got a lungful of acrid fumes. Amid the debris scattered about she caught a glimpse of a discarded Nocturne. She remembered asking a protesting Gray for its ovo-pack, then patching it into the vehicle's shield generator and using its power to "download" the spirit that she had carried within her. The small unit on her wrist chirped. The source was very close by, literally within arm's reach. She cast about, searching…

Then she saw it.

Battered and dented, the Nocturne's ovo-pack lay half-hidden beneath the broken passenger seat, where it had slid to rest on the slanted floor. She reached for it, her hand trembling slightly. Then her fingertips were touching the metal case and she grasped it, noting with a shock that it was warm. Her pulse racing, she brought it up to her scope and gasped, for the tiny holographic had never misled her.

The ovo-pack was flaring with the blue glow of bio-etheric energy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own any of the FF:TSW characters. Square doesn't accept bribes either.

**Author's Note:** Aki's discovery yields a surprise…

**The Other Side**

The ship had landed on solid ground once again, and when Aki emerged from the crater for the second time that morning, her bearing had changed. She had radioed only that she had discovered something "of great importance", and asked Dr. Sid to obtain the records of the Deep Eyes' personal scans. Very soon after her request, she got a reply that the files had been located. Once back aboard, Aki slipped off her shoulder pack, reaching in to withdraw what it has contained and handing it over to Sid, who was waiting for her in the main bay.

"So, this is it? Hmm…" A glance at Aki's face revealed her expression to be unreadable and he wondered what she was thinking Was it hope? Or, maybe, carefully guarded optimism? He went over to the main science station and activated the spiritual scanner, a compact machine that Aki herself had used when she located the first spirits. The holographic control console took shape and color before him. "I'm going to reset the parameters for human patterns. Now, let's see just what you've discovered here." He placed the ovo-pack in a small chamber, slid the opaque shield closed and manipulated a few controls. After another moment the message "scan complete" appeared and both scientists watched as the results scrolled up on the display. Aki anxiously hovered beside Dr. Sid, chewing her lower lip as he brought up the Deep Eyes' scan records and correlated the data. The older doctor blinked, peering closer at the screen. "Aki," he said slowly, "you've made quite a find here. I think that a congratulations may be in order!"

Her heart skipped a beat as Dr. Sid continued. "The primary spiritual signature of this ovo-pack is human, _and_ is that of the captain! And that's not all…look here!" He touched another holographic key and the display subdivided itself into four quadrants, assigning a familiar name to each. Gray's was first, followed by Ryan, Jane and Neil. Just below each name was data that represented the person's scan records.

Aki could hardly believe what she was seeing. "Wait, let me check something." She keyed a control to bring up another window, and on the screen the four bio-etheric signatures separated and were superimposed atop the waveforms of their respective counterparts. They all matched.

"Doctor…look!"

Sid's gray eyes shone. "Yes, I see! All four are present! The pack is discharged to a large degree, though…its levels are almost depleted. But I can do something about that." He withdrew the ovo-pack and opened a plate at one end, exposing a recharge port and connecting it to a power cable in order to stabilize the existing power level. Then he turned to face her, his voice serious.

"Aki, when you were injured on the Tucson wasteland mission, I saved you by implanting the seventh spirit directly into your body."

"And Gray was my spiritual support!" Her hand went to her chest, and through her clothing she could feel the device that was no longer crucial to her survival. "My chest plate was damaged and he was my 'anchor' while you operated." The wheels of her mind turning, Aki thought for a moment. "If the seventh spirit was placed into me via the plate, couldn't we do the same for Gray? His spirit is present in the ovo-pack, and we could use it to restore him."

Dr. Sid leaned back in the chair and tugged his beard contemplatively, mentally running through several scenarios. He was silent for so long that Aki nearly fidgeted. Then he spoke. "It _is_ a plausible hypothesis. However, complete spirit transfer and restoration has never been successfully performed. If indeed we do successfully restore the captain, the other Deep Eyes must be restored, of course, and quickly. We don't know how stable the bio-etheric matrix of the pack is." Now he stood and placed his hands on her shoulders. "The captain was your link to this world when you needed him. I think that it's time that you return the favor. His spirit needs a way to return, a 'guide', as it were."

The possibility that Gray might again rejoin her gave Aki newfound courage and she felt her heart give another little flutter. She took a deep breath, glancing once more at the display, then met Sid's gaze with one of determination.

"I'm ready. Let's do it."

As Dr. Sid began to prepare for what they hoped would be a successful procedure, Aki went to retrieve a wheeled gurney from the ship'semergency supplies, unfolding it and rolling it back to the sleep chamber. She and Dr. Sid transferred Gray to the stretcher and moved him to the lab, where the equipment had been set up. That done, Aki started to unfasten the front of her environmental suit. Then she caught herself and blushed slightly, embarrassed, hastily excusing herself and walked out into the main passageway. She finished undoing the Velcro and buckles and shrugged out of her top. A wide, thin band of elastic metallic mesh ran around her back, just beneath her shoulder blades, securing the chest plate against her body. Her fingertips located the release; there was a click and the ingenious solid-state contraption that Dr. Sid had fashioned slid free. It was, quite literally, a weight off of her chest. Holding it in her hand, she took a moment to marvel at the mechanism that had generated a shaped force field within her and keeping her Phantom contagion in check. Her life had actually been saved life twice; once when she was initially infected, and again when it deflected a bullet from one of Hein's soldiers in the Tucson mission. Now–hopefully–it would play a key part in restoring a lost soul.

Sid's voice echoed down the passageway. "Aki?"

"Coming, doctor." Aki rapidly donned her top again and returned to the lab. The room's illumination had been turned down and the surgical control sphere glowed in its standby mode. She handed the chest plate over to Dr. Sid and looked down at where Gray lay. Small sensors adhered on his temple and the back of his right hand, leading to nearby equipment. Upon the screen were displayed numerous bio-functions, and when Aki glanced at these her double take turned into a gawk of astonishment. The lines representing Gray's brainwaves, heartbeat, respiration and all other body activities were neither flat nor active. Yes, they showed typical peaks and dips, but they were not in motion, looking instead as if they had been frozen in mid-function.

Dr. Sid noticed her look of amazement. "I can't even pretend to understand what has happened to him, but the sooner we can get underway, the better the chances are of his recovery."

He plugged another pair of slender leads into the chest plate and, with Aki's aid, secured it to Gray's torso. He then connected the device to a thicker cable that ran to the ovo-pack over on the main operating control stand. Then he touched the plate's activation switch. It cheeped and a green 'ready' light glowed. After making a few more checks and satisfied that all was set, Dr. Sid looked across at Aki, motioning towards the second table that was arranged alongside Gray's. Aki sat down upon its edge and swung her legs up to lay flat on her back and reached over to hold Gray's cool unfeeling hand. "It seems like the roles were reversed, not too long ago," she said with a small smile.

Sid placed an encouraging hand on her shoulder. "You have a strong will, Aki. Your spirit is likewise. Let it be the captain's guide home." He raised the subdermal injector and touched its cold metal tip to the side of her neck as she forced herself to relax. Aki heard the hiss and felt the slight sting as the drug, injected by a short burst of pneumatic pressure, entered her carotid artery and spread through her brain like wildfire. Within seconds, it seemed, she was struggling to keep her eyes open, and with the last of her flagging strength she turned her head to look at Gray. The final vision her imagination conjured up, before everything faded and she was whisked into oblivion, was of innumerable embers of blue light.

Aki opened her eyes…and saw nothing. No strange vista this time, no gigantic moon rearing from the horizon into hazy sky, no arid ground rumbling with the approach of alien troops. And she heard nothing save the soft sound of her own pulse. In front and behind, above and below, an endless field of black surrounded her…she was floating in a stygian ocean of inky blackness. Her zero-g training automatically took over and she instinctively twisted in place, but there was nothing to see. She raised her hands before her face, then looked 'down'. She could see herself as always, a solid corporeal body.

"Hello?" she called. The sound was oddly muffled, as if she were shouting in a soundproof room. "Gray? Can you hear me? Where are you?"

There was no response, and she began to despair. Would she be able to successfully restore his spirit? Or was this all in vain? She felt very alone, drifting in the vast emptiness that had housed Gray's soul, his thoughts and dreams. Aki closed her eyes.

How long she had been here waiting, she had no idea. Time had no meaning. But something whispered on the edge of her awareness, like a faint sensor ghost on a scope, and she could not tell from which direction it had come. It was distant but hauntingly familiar. She concentrated, reaching out into the void with all her senses.

_I'm here, _she said wordlessly. _Gray, if it's you, find me! Please!_

Another heartbeat, and she felt the presence draw nearer. Her eyes opened again. But now, something had changed.

A faint sparkle flickered dead ahead. She could not tell if it was far or near, or if it was drawing closer or growing in intensity. It began to develop into a vaguely humanoid shape, edged in electric blue. As the details began to fill in, the features became recognizable. Finally the apparition was floating silently before her, composed of brilliant blue light. It reached out a ghostly hand, and tentatively she did the same. Their fingers touched, then intertwined, and her heart filled with joy as she felt the warm familiarity of Gray's soul envelop her. His voice, no more than a whisper but still perfectly clear, sounded within her mind.

_Aki…it's you! How? You're not–?_

_No, I'm still alive and kicking, Gray,_ she answered, her reply tinged with humor.

_But how is it possible that you're here? _

_Your body is back aboard the Black Boa and you're wearing my chest plate now…Dr. Sid and I are going to use it to try and restore your soul. I'm your spiritual support this time._

His ethereal laughter echoed in her head. _We do keep saving each other's butts, don't we? But what happened to the Phantoms? Did the wave work?_

_Yes, it was successful! They're gone! We were about to depart when the ship's scanner detected the ovo-pack from your Nocturne rifle. I retrieved it, and we discovered that it contained not only your spirit, but also those of the other Deep Eyes! _Upon the heels of her enthusiasm, a wave of sorrow rolled through her. _If General Hein could have held his fire, you wouldn't have had to sacrifice yourself. Even he could have seen that the waveform was working!_

_Hein! What happened to him?_

_The Zeus Cannon overloaded, and the station was destroyed. _

_How typical of the general._ _And so, now you're going to try and bring me back? _

She grasped his other hand as well as she was able_. Yes. You, and Ryan, and Jane and Neil too. Somehow, your spirits all remained here, while the Phantoms departed with the alien Gaia. Your body is in a dormant state; all of your critical functions are suspended. We assume that the same thing holds true for the others. We must get to them as soon as possible!_

Gray brought up a hand and brushed his fingertips lightly along her cheekbone. The touch was that of the softest feather. _Then show us the way back._

_Then concentrate, Gray, _she urged. _Focus on returning to the material world. And to me._

His eyes closed and his outline seemed to grow softer, fading, and she felt momentary panic as his voice sounded in her mind once again. It was fainter now, and his touch became more and more tenuous. It was like trying to hold onto a handful of smoke.

_Something's happening…Aki!_ Gray had all but vanished, only a slight wisp of nebulous blue vapor marking the space he once occupied.

Then he was gone, and she was left alone in the darkness once again.


End file.
